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DKMS Americas—Where Leukemia Meets its Match!

www.dkmsamericas.org

The DKMS mission is to save lives by recruiting bone marrow donors for blood cancer patients. It all started when Katharina Harf’s mother, Mechtild, was diagnosed with acute leukemia in 1990. Her family was told that a bone marrow transplant could save her mother if she could find a matching donor. The search seemed hopeless, however, because at the time there were only 3,000 potential donors available in Germany, where they lived. Katharina’s father, Peter Harf, was desperate to find his wife a donor and with the help of family, friends, and volunteers, worked tirelessly to recruit 68,000 donors in only one year.

Recognizing the importance of finding suitable donors for all patients in need, Peter Harf and his wife’s physician founded DKMS in Germany in 1991. Sadly, that same year, Mechtild lost her battle to leukemia. Katharina was only fourteen. Katharina’s mother’s death shaped her life in many significant ways. It motivates her to continue the lifesaving work that her father began in 1990. Katharina’s goal in life is to help other leukemia patients, so that no family has to endure the pain they suffered. Every four minutes someone is diagnosed with blood cancer and every ten minutes, blood cancer takes a precious life. Many blood cancer patients could be saved by a bone marrow transplant; sadly, six out of ten patients never receive the lifesaving transplant they need.

In 2004, Katharina led the expansion of DKMS into the United States. Through this effort, DKMS has been able to establish a donor recruitment program and national campaigns throughout the United States to raise awareness and increase the diversity of the donor registry. Worldwide, DKMS donors have provided marrow and peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) for more than 26,000 transplants. DKMS is the largest bone marrow donor center in the world with over 2.9 million registered donors.

Please join us in the fight against leukemia. Your contribution to DKMS, a tax exempt organization under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code, is deductible for computing income and estate taxes. One-hundred percent of your donation is used to register bone marrow donors, supporting the lifesaving work of DKMS. We are asking attendees to make cash donations or checks to DKMS Americas. Look for the donation boxes at the registration table, the opening ceremony, and Friday’s President’s Brunch. Checks should be made payable to DKMS Americas. To learn more, visit www.getswabbed.org.